


Love, Honor, and Disobey

by Butterfly



Category: Firefly
Genre: Backstory, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-06
Updated: 2005-10-06
Packaged: 2017-10-27 02:46:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/290810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterfly/pseuds/Butterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal absolutely forbids it, and that's final.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love, Honor, and Disobey

"I _will_ _not_ have it," Mal said. "Do you hear me?"

"I'm not seeing as to where it's your choice, sir," Zoe said. Mal sputtered for a moment, and was looking throughly flummoxed. Zoe knew that she shouldn't be enjoying it so, but she hadn't ever really surprised him before, and he'd needed some shaking up, in any case.

"Not my choice?" Mal said. "Which one of us is running this boat?"

"You are, sir," Zoe said. "But that don't mean you run me."

"Since when?" Mal muttered. He glared at her for a moment, and she stared back calmly. His eyes narrowed. "I forbid it. I absolutely forbid any sort of misbegotten union between you and that _qing wa cao de liu mang_."

"Thought he was a brilliant pilot that you'd never seen the likes of before," Zoe said. "Sir."

"Yeah, well... things change," Mal said. "I've forbidden it, it's been forbidden, and you'll have to tell him no."

"Sir," Zoe said. She hadn't been expecting the Captain to throw her and Wash a parade, but she'd been hoping for a mite warmer of a reception than this. "That's not possible, as it turns out."

" _Zao gao_ ," Mal said, with feeling. "What does _that_ mean?"

"It's already been done, sir," Zoe said. "Civil ceremony. Last night."

"You got yourself married and didn't tell me?" Mal asked, some hurt mixing in with the anger in his voice. "Then what's the point of asking me today?"

"Didn't ask, sir," Zoe said, reproachfully. " _Said_ , sir. Was you that interpreted it as a question."

"Cause it shoulda been," Mal said, leaning back against the console with a bit of a sulk, which meant that he'd decided to ungraciously give in. "Next thing, we'll be tripping over some shoeless toddler, and I don't hold with children on my boat, _dong ma_?"

"Wasn't planning on having them right away, sir," Zoe said.

"Planning on giving me any advance notice on that one?" Mal asked.

"I'll let you know at least a week before I give birth, sir," Zoe said. Mal glared at her again.

"That _husband_ of yours is rubbing off on you," he announced, pushing away from the console. "Don't like it, not in the least."

"Sorry, sir," Zoe said.

"No, you ain't," Mal said. He sighed and glanced out the cockpit window, the sight of all the grass and trees seeming to depress him a bit. "I'm gonna go track down our genius mechanic, see why we're still on the ground."

"Yes, sir," Zoe said.

"You wouldn't have had the chance if we'd been out in the black," Mal said gloomily. She did feel a little bad, him taking it so hard, but she couldn't do nothing about that. Body had to grab what happiness could be had, and someday he'd realize that, too. "Better get us back out there, before you decide to up and marry Bester, too."

"That's not legal, sir," Zoe pointed out.

"Yeah, well, and pulling the wool over your Captain's eyes ain't right," Mal said, heading out of the cockpit. "You think on that."

Zoe watched him head down the set of stairs into the corridor, and, as the Captain had requested, thought on her new arrangement with Wash for a spell. The way he'd gone all fluttery last night, when she'd cornered him and asked if he was angling for a lifetime or just a stop-over while he was piloting their ship. The shocked, pleased look in his eyes when she'd knelt over on top of him, after, even though it hadn't been the first time they'd shared bunk.

He'd touched her like he did the ship, like he knew where all the controls were already, and just needed to get adjusted to the quirks. He'd run his hands down her body, made her soar just as he did _Serenity._ Should make her uncomfortable, him knowing her so well. Should, but didn't, not anymore.

Zoe rubbed her hand over the back of the empty pilot's seat, longing to be touching skin instead.

It was a bit of a thrill to realize that there wasn't nothing stopping her. They were grounded, some engine part or another broke down. Captain didn't need her for anything, not now, and she'd told him her piece. She could go, find Wash, get him moved down into her bunk. That seemed like a better plan than anything she'd heard yet today.

And it was what she wanted to do, anyhow.


End file.
